Boundary Practice: Patterns of Relating, Self-care and Somatic Awareness for Family Support Professionals: September 2022

Boundaries are essential to practice in the helping professions, as they make caring sustainable, and protect skilled workers from compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization and burnout.
During this challenging period of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s especially important for social service providers to be aware of our boundaries.Boundary practice encourages us to consider our own energy and how we’re spending it, and to understand pre-existing patterns of relating that attract us to the helping professions, while also making healthy boundaries more difficult.

In this workshop hosted by the BC Council for Families, participants will learn about the advantages and disadvantages of different patterns of relating, with a view to becoming better stewards of our professional energy, and making our self-care practices more personal and effective. Workers will gain a better understanding of how they feel and think at work relative to how they’re negotiating boundaries with clients and co-workers. Boundary work ensures we’re bringing our best selves to the work we love so much.

Workshop Highlights:

• The context of human service work and the helping professions
• Three boundary styles and how to recognize them
• Somatic exercises and boundary practice
• Applying boundary practice to client work, co-workers and organizations
• Interactive exercises in partners/small groups
• A review of self-care – what it is, and what it isn’t
• Practice examples and scenarios